Dr Muhammad Zubair Khan suffered chest pain for 10 days and could not access an ambulance the day he died, says wife
The wife of deceased Quetta doctor, Muhammad Zubair Khan, has claimed that her husband "died waiting for treatment" on May 28 and was initially given a false diagnosis for COVID-19.
Dr Zubair was in charge of the Trauma Centre at Bolan Medical Complex and after the coronavirus outbreak, was looking after the isolation ward.
According to Geo News, he got his family tested for COVID-19 on May 15. The next day, his result came back negative, along with his son's. His wife, and another son, however, were diagnosed positive.
Over the next 10 days, he suffered chest and throat pain. Upon getting tested once more, he was told he is COVID-19 positive.
He kept waiting for an ambulance for hours before he died, Geo News reported.
"How could they make such a big blunder?" asked the wife, about the test result.
"If this is how doctors are treated, what must others be treated like?" she remarked.
She also claimed that her husband was initially not provided protective gear at all by the hospital and was "not satisfied" with the equipment provided subsequently.
Balochistan government spokesperson Liaquat Shahwani said that to provide an impression that adequate medical facilities were not provided is "unreasonable" and "incorrect".
"He was a member of the doctor community. His doctor friends could not have left his side when he was ill," said Shahwani.
The novel coronavirus has infected 1,904 healthcare workers in Pakistan and 17 have died since the outbreak first emerged, official data reveals.
In Balochistan, 237 have been infected and two have died, as per official data. However, the director general of health in the province told Geo.tv that seven healthcare providers have died and 280 are infected.